New to EVs: Is Clarity a good choice for daily 70 mile commute?

There was a discussion here that you can read: https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/will-the-clarity-work-for-long-commuters-like-me.3113/

 

Certainly if you are charing at a public station at work you can do it all in EV. If this is a second car I would certainly consider an EV only car that has a longer range (we only have one car so did not investigate EV only cars). If it's your only car or you also need it for long distance trips I still think it's a great choice as you are likely to get 50 miles EV and only 10 ICE miles. This still seems way better than the ICE or hybrid options to me! I'd also look at the volt if you want a smaller car or hatchback, which may get you a few more miles, but if you want a larger car the Clarity is the only way to go.

 

If you can charge at work, you will have no problem making each leg on battery only with So Cal weather.
If you can’t charge at work you will still do about 50 miles EV and 20 HV. Just using the EPA numbers of 110 MPGe EV for 50 miles and 42 mpg HV on gas for 20 miles, you will still beat the overall mpg and cost per mile of any regular (non plug-in) hybrid by quite a bit. I think the math works out to around 90 mpg. (and I always beat the EPA #s).
And you’ll do it in a roomy, comfortable, quiet, almost luxurious car. So I’ll say it would work out fine for you.

BTW, on trips with speeds from 65 to 70, I got an honest 49 mpg in HV mode taking into account the small amount of battery used. And in local driving of 75/25 city/hwy with AC on and temps in the 90s, I’m consistently getting at least high 50s EV range. That’s with hwy speed limit of 55 mph. It will of course go down with higher speeds.

 

I do 80 miles commute + some depends on if I need to make a detour for grocery or pick up my kid, and we use my car for weekend as well. On avg I fuel the tank every 2 weeks compare to every week on my gen 3 Prius. So my monthly gas consumption drops from 40 gallon to 12.

I do charge at work tho and I can only charge with level 1 charger at night so sometimes I dont get full charge in the morning.

 

You answer your own question Mark. Given that the Clarity gets roughly 50 miles on electric, and you have possible ability to charge at work. Not much need for fuel. Next step is to test drive the Clarity. Owning one, I’m kind of biased toward the car. Give it a try and see what you think. Oh and there is that 7500 tax credit.... shhhhh! My commute is about 70 miles round trip and I do not have the luxury of charging at work. Fueling between 2 and 3 gallons a week (I work 4 - 10 hour shifts).

 

I can't disagree with anything in the responses so far. I just would add that if you're looking for the lowest cost overall to fuel your Clarity be conscious of the cost of public charging stations. Free is, of course, the best. But I've not found a single public charge station (that is not free) where the cost of electricity to recharge the car is lower than gas cost. You might be paying $3.50/gallon in SoCal but don't be surprised if the recharge cost exceeds the gas cost. If that is the case then your commute is simple.

Drive in EV until the battery is depleted, then the car will automatically switch to "Normal" mode and use gas. There are no decisions to be made, no buttons to push. Just drive and charge at home. You'll only use about one quart of gas per day. Fill up once every two weeks.

 

I had the same situation. 25 mike commute each way. I charge at work for free. During the week, I maybe use 2 miles of gas per day (mostly EV mode). On the weekend, I use more for family activities in HV mode. Owned the car for 5 weeks now and have only had the “low fuel” light come on tonight. Will be filling the 7 gallon tank for the first time this week.

Love the car so far! Hope you will too.

 

I only want to say people are thinking too much into EV only driving. Nothing wrong to drive it with gas unless you think gas is an evil thing (I'm more an evil as 2 other cars are gas only).
That's the flexibility of this car, good EV range and hybrid when needed.

 

If you can qualify for the full $7,500 tax credit then this car is a decent value as far as new cars go. In my opinion, if you don't qualify for the full tax credit then a used leaf or similar would be a better option.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Inside EVs mobile app

 

In addition to the consensus, you can also easily control your charging via the Honda link app or through the cars timer. You could just charge the battery just enough to make it back home. On a level 2 charger you can add about 45% capacity in 1 hour charging time.

 

Please respond back to the forum when you have made your final decision regardless if it’s Clarity or not. Curious what you eventually go with.

 

My commute is almost exactly like yours ie:66 miles a day. I have no problem at all with the Clarity. I charge every night when I'm home and have enough EV power for most of my trip. The way I do it is use EV for the 1 mile it takes me to get to the freeway. I then stay in EV on the freeway until I'm about half way to work before switching to HV. I'll stay in HV until I reach work. When I return home in the evening I will start in EV mode (I usually still have a fair amount left) and drive in that mode until I see that I'm close to the end of it. At that point I will switch to HV mode for the last few miles. Doing it in this way I didn't need to fill my gas tank for 750 miles.